Jewish Community Center

Sara Shvartzman considers herself lucky. As the new arts and culture coordinator for the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore, she is able to blend three of her passions in one: the arts, working with older adults and working in the Jewish community. The 26-year-old Shvartzman, who was raised in Black Forest, Colo., but now calls Otterbein home, has a background in marketing, senior living care and social work. Now, her job allows her to oversee the art gallery, adult arts classes at the JCC's Park Heights location, as well as two of the organization's signature events: the Jewish Film Festival, which opens April 4, and Cinefest.

An aquatics instructor at a summer camp for youngsters at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore has been charged with sexual solicitation of a minor, police said. Charles David Beaver, 58, a former teacher at Westminster High School, was arrested Tuesday at a Baltimore County hotel, police said. Police said the Carroll County man had communicated online with a person he believed was a pimp to arrange a meeting at the hotel with two teenage boys for sex. The supposed pimp was actually a Baltimore County detective.

Sharon Seigel pulled the wooden candelabrum from her canvas bag and asked if anyone in her young audience knew what it was. "A menorah!" shouted 4-year-old Dylan Hicks. "And does anyone know what we put in it?" "Candles!" Dylan shouted. Oliver Bui, meanwhile, watched from his mother's arms. The sights and sounds of Hanukkah were entirely new to the 6-month-old - and also to his mother. "I think it's great," said Kim Bui, who is not Jewish. "It's exposing kids to other cultural celebrations."

Following religious values taught as a youth can be difficult for many when entering adulthood, but Charm City Tribe, a two-year-old program in the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore, aspires to reconnect people in their 20s and 30s to Judaic practices they may have lost along the road to independence. Local families funded a three-year grant initiative to reach non-Orthodox young Jewish adults and generate positive attitudes toward Jewish culture. Director of the program Rabbi Jessy Gross organizes events to connect the community and works individually with young people to help them identify their stances on Judaism.

In a groundbreaking collaboration, the Owings Mills Jewish Community Center and three nearby synagogues are teaming up to offer Jewish U, a wide-ranging three-month series of adult education courses.Beginning this week, Jewish U will offer courses in Hebrew, Biblical studies, marriage and family, and other topics related to Judaism."This is quite innovative," said Michael Wegier, the JCC's director of Jewish Education and coordinator of Jewish U, which is planned to operate each year from January to March.

The Jewish Community Center in Owings Mills, barraged with requests for weekend recreational facilities, decided to open on Saturday afternoons. Hundreds of Orthodox Jews rallied to protest what they considered a violation of the sanctity of the Sabbath. The decision was reversed.But the year was 1979, not 1997. The drama that unfolded during the past month in the diverse Jewish communities of Baltimore and Baltimore County was a replay of a controversy 18 years ago.The outcome was the same, but the arguments this time were magnified by demographic changes and contained echoes of a passionate debate in Israel.

The film version of Herb Gardner's Tony Award-winning play, jTC "I'm Not Rappaport," will open in Baltimore in early 1997, but if you want to see what the original stage version is like, the Jewish Community Center's Ensemble Theatre Company has a production opening tonight.Barney Cohen and Ed Smith star as two elderly curmudgeons in this touching tale of friendship. Direction is by Mitchell A. Nathan.Show times at the Jewish Community Center, 5700 Park Heights Ave., are 7: 30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Saturdays and 1 p.m. Sundays, through Dec. 29. Tickets are $6 in advance; $8 at the door.

The Jewish Community Center has an extensive art faculty, whose members offer classes to adults and seniors in many disciplines and media. Every two years, the faculty gets to have an exhibit at the JCC's Norman and Sarah Brown Art Gallery at its Park Heights location, and the faculty show is going on now. Participating artists include Lucille Weinberg, Tammra Sigler, John Seely, Jennifer Lechner, Dan Howarth, Craig Herron, Edward Hilbert, Judy Heimann, Sheila...

Md. said to trail U.S. average in number of church membersMaryland lags behind the nation in the number of citizens who identify themselves as members of a Judeo-Christian church, according to a new study by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies.zTC Forty-eight percent of Maryland citizens identify themselves as a member of a specific religious denomination, compared to 55.1 percent nationwide, according to the study of U.S. church membership released this week.The study said a fourth to a half of the church members in central Maryland are Catholic, while Methodists make up similar numbers in several Eastern Shore and Western Maryland counties.

Four-year-old Kate Grossman held out the white paper bag, one of the 500 she and her two siblings were handing out to the needy at Our Daily Bread's downtown employment center on Christmas Day. But the woman approaching smiled and shook her head. "I just want a hug," she said. Without hesitation, all three Grossmans rushed forward for a group embrace that brought the woman to tears. The Grossmans were among the 600 or so who took part in the ninth annual Mitzvah Day, preparing gifts at the Jewish Community Center in Pikesville and taking them to charities around the city.

Aaron Margolis, an attorney active in Zionist organizations, died of complications of a pituitary adenoma Feb. 10 at the North Oaks Retirement Community. The former Northwest Baltimore resident was 87. Born in Baltimore, he was the son of Minnie and Samson Margolis, a picture framer and calligraphy artist. He grew up on East Baltimore Street and attended Polytechnic Institute. For two years in the mid-1930s, the family lived in what was then Palestine, but returned to Baltimore when the elder Mr. Margolis could not find work or earn enough there in the Depression, family members said.

Sara Shvartzman considers herself lucky. As the new arts and culture coordinator for the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore, she is able to blend three of her passions in one: the arts, working with older adults and working in the Jewish community. The 26-year-old Shvartzman, who was raised in Black Forest, Colo., but now calls Otterbein home, has a background in marketing, senior living care and social work. Now, her job allows her to oversee the art gallery, adult arts classes at the JCC's Park Heights location, as well as two of the organization's signature events: the Jewish Film Festival, which opens April 4, and Cinefest.

When I wrote about Jill Smokler last year for The Sun, I said she might be Baltimore's biggest unknown celebrity. Then I pointed out her online following stats -- on Twitter, nearly 155,000 people followed her, more, by far, than Baltimore's mayor, Maryland's governor, chef Duff Goldman and the Ravens' Ray Lewis - together. She's added to her flock since then. By nearly 100,000 people. And it's only going to grow because she's about to release her first book. "Confessions of a Scary Mommy," goes on sale today.

More than 2,000 Ocean City evacuees have arrived in the Baltimore area for temporary housing during Hurricane Irene, as part of the state's preparations for the storm. Six hundred foreign exchange students traveled in buses from Ocean City on Thursday night and stayed on cots in Burdick Hall, a gymnasium on the Towson University campus, said John Hatten, director of emergency operations for Maryland's Department of Human Resources. In Owings Mills, 395 more students are being housed at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore, while 1,000 to 1,100 are staying at the 5th Regiment Armory near Bolton Hill, according to Hatten and human resources department spokesman Ian Patrick Hines.

Police Department officials announced increased surveillance and patrols for forthcoming religious holidays in a community heavily populated by Jewish families after last week's incidents of vandalism, which police are treating as hate crimes. At a meeting at the Jewish Community Center on Park Heights Avenue on Thursday night, Maj. Sabrina Tapp-Harper of the Northwestern District told residents that the vandalism is considered "a very serious matter" and that a new patrol van will survey the targeted neighborhoods from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. to "apprehend the individuals that may have committed these acts.

Homeowners who are in trouble on their mortgages or worried that they will get behind in the future can get a free legal consultation at a Jan. 10 foreclosure solutions workshop. The event, sponsored by nonprofits and staffed by attorneys, is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 5700 Park Heights Ave. in Baltimore. Homeowners should pre-register by Jan. 6 by calling 410-466-1990, x0. - Jamie Smith Hopkins | The Baltimore Sun

Facing financial difficulties, Yeshivat Rambam is trying to sell its Park Heights Avenue campus. Officials at the Orthodox Jewish day school said Thursday the school would remain open through the end of the academic year, helped in part by short-term financing from the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. After this year, however, the school will have to relocate. In a letter to parents this week, officials referred to "perennial rumors of insolvency" and said the sale of the campus at 6300 Park Heights Ave. was inevitable.

Free legal consultation available for homeowners Homeowners who are in trouble on their mortgages or worried that they will get behind in the future can get a free legal consultation at a Jan. 10 foreclosure solutions workshop. The event, sponsored by nonprofits and staffed by attorneys, is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 5700 Park Heights Ave. in Baltimore. Homeowners should pre-register by Jan. 6 by calling 410-466-1990, x0. - Jamie Smith Hopkins Constellation charitable foundation gets $36 million Constellation Energy Group announced Monday a $36 million contribution by Electricite de France to the company's foundation.